just can't get used to alt/shift

I have many binds on control but I have tried many times using alt and shift but just for the life of me can't get used to it yet it's so normal to other players. I can press control quite comfortably with my pinky but when I try alt or tab I screw up a lot.

Any tips on how to get rolling on these? It will help me a lot to use these as I still click some abilities.

It took me a very long time to get use to them too. For PvE mainly though, I had been Resto for a long time and had always used Healbot, when you could bind everything to Left Click and Right Click without it doing anything to the rest of your interface. I switched to Clique and it did get rid of that ugly extra raid frames but if I bound Left and Right Click, I couldn't target someone without using the /tar command.

So I started and bound everything to keys that I had never used when healing before, being Control and Alt.

This is how I learned, and I only use those keys when healing.. Not sure what you play but switching from Healbot to Clique definitely helped me out getting use to them

Modifiers and keybinds are what separate the poor players from the better players. Generally, if you're more comfortable with your keybinds and are able to effectively complete your rotation, you're going to be more successful than someone who clicks, usually just because of response time and general speed. It's faster to press 1 through 9 than it is to click it - factor in movement, and keybinds come out on top every time.

If you're uncomfortable with modifiers, try using things like letter keys. Q, E, R, T, G, H, F, C, X, Z, and V are all very common keys to bind. Also consider F1 to whatever other "F" key you can reach (usually 4 or 5). Couple that with your control modifier and you have more than enough keybinds to play successfully.

I don't use them at all. I bind everything possible to the primary keys around wasd and use a multi-buttoned mouse for everything else. Q and E for my most used abilities, the buttons around the scroll wheel(not left right mouse) for my 2nd most used abilities. Middle mouse button(scroll) for silence/stun depending upon class. 1-5, r, z, c, and f for everything else and ` for cc. I have 3 other mouse buttons that I use for utility. It can help to cut down on the buttons you use by creating macros with multiple abilities bound to them. For example I have my trinkets macroed to go off with one of my major cds. This means that I push this button to activate the second trinket when the first one expires, even though the ability it is teamed with is not yet off cd.

I don't use them at all. I bind everything possible to the primary keys around wasd and use a multi-buttoned mouse for everything else. Q and E for my most used abilities, the buttons around the scroll wheel(not left right mouse) for my 2nd most used abilities. Middle mouse button(scroll) for silence/stun depending upon class. 1-5, r, z, c, and f for everything else and ` for cc. I have 3 other mouse buttons that I use for utility. It can help to cut down on the buttons you use by creating macros with multiple abilities bound to them. For example I have my trinkets macroed to go off with one of my major cds. This means that I push this button to activate the second trinket when the first one expires, even though the ability it is teamed with is not yet off cd.

I should have also included mouse keybinds + mouse with modifiers can add a few more, depending on the amount of additional buttons your mouse has.

Funny, a lot of people find ctrl the easiest and alt the hardest but I'm just the opposite. I hate ctrl even though I still use it for a few things to the right of my hand and for mouse buttons. But I use alt and shift constantly. Use your thumb for alt and pinky for shift/ctrl. My thumb is usually on the space bar right next to alt so I just move it over and hit my numbers, a few easy to reach letter keys like F, and mouse buttons. Practice makes perfect. Once your fingers are used to moving that way, muscle memory takes over and you stop thinking about it.

I can't mouse move, and I'll never be as good at PvP as someone who does mouse move. I have never been able to stand moving a character with my mouse in third person view. It's almost as high up there on the list as the sound of styrofoam squeaking, but not quite as bad as the god forsaken scratching sound a pencil makes when writing on paper.

I rarely PvP, and when I do, it's in BGs, where I can play poorly and still outperform the masses. In PvE, I have RARELY ever encountered a scenario in which mouse movement proved necessary. Ulduar, Alone in the Dark. I never die to situational awareness problems, rarely take avoidable damage, and perform my duties in a raid generally better than the average serious raider (not the super hardcore sorts that min-max everything to a single stat point and execute their rotations within a thousandth percentile of perfection). The way I play works perfectly fine with the way I play the game.

The point is, don't try and force yourself to do what everyone else does because of some arbitrary presumption of necessity. You have a shit ton of keys on your keyboard. While you'll generally have to keybind CONSIDERABLY more things for serious PvP than a typical raider would have to, if you can sacrifice your system and UI shortcuts for things like your bags, character sheet, map, social tabs, guild info, LFD/LFR, talents, spellbook, etc..., you have a WHOLE LOT of buttons you can press without needing to use a modifier.

I rarely PvP, and when I do, it's in BGs, where I can play poorly and still outperform the masses. In PvE, I have RARELY ever encountered a scenario in which mouse movement proved necessary.

Keyboard turning is the main issue. You don't want to be keyboard turning or walking backwards when you can just spin and run or strafe. Combining keyboard running with mouse running and turning is best at least if you have a lot of mouse buttons. It's really not a good idea to be using keys on the right side of your keyboard. That's why modifiers exist. Once you're used to them, you can be a lot faster and precise. He should do what works best but generally full keybinds that are easy to reach, modifiers, macros, mouse turning and no keyboard turning or S keying are best and he should try to get used to them. I mean why not play to your full potential?

I have many binds on control but I have tried many times using alt and shift but just for the life of me can't get used to it yet it's so normal to other players. I can press control quite comfortably with my pinky but when I try alt or tab I screw up a lot.

Any tips on how to get rolling on these? It will help me a lot to use these as I still click some abilities.

Pinky should be fine for shift too. For alt best bet is to remap it to mouse side button - it can be easilly done with any Razer mouse, actually if you've real troubles with shift then you can remap it to 2d mouse side button.

Keyboard turning is the main issue. You don't want to be keyboard turning or walking backwards when you can just spin and run or strafe. Combining keyboard running with mouse running and turning is best at least if you have a lot of mouse buttons. It's really not a good idea to be using keys on the right side of your keyboard. That's why modifiers exist. Once you're used to them, you can be a lot faster and precise. He should do what works best but generally full keybinds that are easy to reach, modifiers, macros, mouse turning and no keyboard turning or S keying are best and he should try to get used to them. I mean why not play to your full potential?

I never backpeddle (though I just can't seem to bring myself to unbind my S key), and I don't "keyboard turn" in the classical sense. I can at least acknowledge that, unless casting a non-instant spell, you probably shouldn't ever just stand on one spot. I use a clever combination of strafing and turning while running, and though not instantaneous like a mouse turn can be, the only time I ever have trouble with an enemy player being behind me is in the midst of a rogue stunlock. =/

I have no clue what drugs you rogues take that allows you to move sporadically around me, while stunned, appearing to move around me in every direction, and still manage to execute every backstab properly.

Darn you shifty bastards!

Regardless, I'm not the one to be giving PvP advice, I'm just saying, if something works for you, and you simply can't get used to the alternative, try simply expanding the way your comfortable playing.

really should just get used to it. the first time you rebind your bars, or adopt a new control scheme, be it mouse turning or whatever, its going to be a painful experience. myself, moving from a target and focus set of macros to arena target macros at first took me weeks of relearning how to play before i stopp hexing/shocking the incorrect targets are fat fingering keys. even though it feels unnatural and frustrating, you will relearn eventually and be happy after that fact that you did.

the plus is, the next time you rebind your bars, say to a more efficient layout, or to add new skills, you will adapt to those even quicker.

finding the best keyboard for you helps, please don't misunderstand me i'm not pulling the swifty line of buying a razer keyboard will turn you from a 1500 player into a glad, but for some one who understands the basics of their class and of how to bind appropriately finding equipment that is comfortable and the correct shape for you can make a huge difference in the efficiency of play.

i had a huge issue using ctl as a modifier when i started taking pvp seriously because the keyboard i had hand me down from a friend was very large (and i'm very small!) it took a few tries until i found one that had key spacing that worked for me and didn't require me to reach too far ( i use esdf to move)

posture also makes a big impact, try raising your seat so your wrists sit higher on your keyboard. try not slumping back so your hands reach further forward. try putting your keyboard at a different angle so your wrists and palm sit on it differently.

I can only second what others have said about the right keyboard. Being Belgian myself we use azerty instead of qwerty keyboards, and for some reason the shift key tends to be really uncomfortable for myself. So a while ago I decided to ditch my Logitech keyboard with the G keys (I was only using those because of my inability to use most shift combos) in favor of a zowie mechanical keyboard without any fancy hotkeys. Meaning I had to learn to type on a qwerty board, without any shortcuts available.

What I did was first bind my mount to shift+F, and I would bind it every day to a new shift+combo. After 2 months I can say that I use 16 shift keybinds as comfortable as I'm using 12345. I've done a couple of dungeons where I would bind my dps spells to shift 1, shift 2, etc ... for the sake of training. But don't make the mistake to only band spells you use once every month on those shift binds if you want to learn it (like a res spel, etc ).

Funny, a lot of people find ctrl the easiest and alt the hardest but I'm just the opposite. I hate ctrl even though I still use it for a few things to the right of my hand and for mouse buttons. But I use alt and shift constantly. Use your thumb for alt and pinky for shift/ctrl. My thumb is usually on the space bar right next to alt so I just move it over and hit my numbers, a few easy to reach letter keys like F, and mouse buttons. Practice makes perfect. Once your fingers are used to moving that way, muscle memory takes over and you stop thinking about it.

I agree with this. Alt is literally my favorite with CTRL my least favorite. It must be because I'm using the E,W,R format instead of W,Q,E format. ALT-Q is literally the most comfortable keybind for me.